REVIEW PAPER
Cathelicidin LL-37: LPS-neutralizing, pleiotropic peptide
 
 
 
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Occupational Biohazards, Institute of Agricultural Medicine, Lublin, Poland
 
2
Department of Health Promotion, Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Health Care, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland
 
 
Ann Agric Environ Med. 2007;14(1):1-4
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Human organism, constantly exposed to a large variety of pathogenic microorganisms and their products, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), developed innate immunity as a first line of defence. One of the compartments of our organism well equipped with these defence mechanisms is the respiratory system. The cells lining the airways respond to the presence of virulent microorganisms by producing natural antimicrobial peptides, including the only member of the cathelicidins family found to date in humans, peptide LL-37. LL-37 is a small peptide of 37 amino acid residues. The peptide, in addition to its bactericidal effect, plays numerous roles in inflammatory and tissue remodelling processes. It stimulates angiogenesis, induces proliferation of lung epithelial cells, accelerates wound closure of the airway epithelium, and provokes cytokine release (e.g. IL-8) and cell migration. LL-37 is also able to neutralize LPS, a heteropolymer associated with organic dust, produced by Gram-negative bacteria. LPS (commonly referred to as endotoxin) plays an important role in pathogenesis of many respiratory diseases caused by organic dust, including organic dust toxic syndrome and chronic illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma or allergic alveolitis (hypersensitivity pneumonitis). LPS is a strong pro-inflammatory stimulus, inducing in respiratory airways expression of antimicrobial peptides, including LL-37, which is in turn a potent LPS-neutralizing factor. The article discusses the complex interplay between endotoxin and the LPS-neutralizing, pleiotropic peptide LL-37 in pathogenic mechanisms of lung diseases, with regard to closer perspectives of using LL-37 and its derivatives as therapeutic agents.
 
REFERENCES (33)
1.
H, Wigzell H, Eklund A, Gudmundsson GH: Antibacterial components in bronchoalveolar lavage fl uid from healthy individuals and sarcoidosis patients. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999, 160, 283-290.
 
2.
Bowdish DME, Davidson DJ, Scott MG, Hancock REW: Immunomodulatory activities of small host defence peptides. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2005, 49, 1727-1732.
 
3.
Bowdish DME, Davidson DJ, Hancock REW: A reevaluation of the role of host defence peptides in mammalian immunity. Curr Protein Pept Sci 2005, 6, 35-51.
 
4.
Diamond G, Legarda D, Ryan LK: The innate immune response of the respiratory epithelium. Immunol Rev 2000, 173, 27-38.
 
5.
Diamond G, Russell JP, Bevins CL: Inducible expression of an antibiotic peptide gene in lipopolysaccharide-challenged tracheal epithelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1995, 93, 5156-5160.
 
6.
Dutkiewicz J, Skórska C, Burrell R, Szuster-Ciesielska A, Sitkowska J: Immunostimulative effects of repeated inhalation exposure to microvesicle-bound endotoxin of Pantoea agglomerans. Ann Agric Environ Med 2005, 12, 289-294.
 
7.
Elssner A, Duncan M, Gavrilin M, Wewers MD: A novel P2X7 receptor activator, the human cathelicidin-derived peptide LL37, induces IL-1 beta processing and release. J Immunol 2004, 172, 4987-4994.
 
8.
Golec M: The effects of long-term occupational exposure to dust from herbs. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2006, 79,169-175.
 
9.
Golec M, Skórska C, Mackiewicz B, Dutkiewicz J: Immunologic reactivity to work-related airborne allergens in people occupationally exposed to dust from herbs. Ann Agric Environ Med 2004, 11, 121-127.
 
10.
Gough M, Hancock REW, Kelly NM: Antiendotoxin activity of cationic peptide antimicrobial agents. Infect Immun 1996, 64, 4922-4927.
 
11.
Hino M, Kohchi C, Nishizawa T, Yoshida A, Nakata K, Inagawa H, Hori H, Makino K, Terada H, Soma G: Innate-immune therapy for lung carcinoma based on tissue-macrophage activation with lipopolysaccharide. Anticancer Res 2005, 25, 3747-3754.
 
12.
Kim ST, Cha HE, Kim DY, Han GC, Chung YS, Lee YJ, Hwang YJ, Lee HM: Antimicrobial peptide LL-37 is upregulated in chronic nasal infl ammatory disease. Acta Otolaryngol 2003, 123, 81-85.
 
13.
Koczulla R, von Degenfeld G, Kupatt C, Krotz F, Zahler S, Gloe T, Issbrucker K, Unterberger P, Zaiou M, Lebherz C, Karl A, Raake P, Pfosser A, Boekstegers P, Welsch U, Hiemstra PS, Vogelmeier C, Gallo RL, Clauss M, Bals R: An angiogenic role for the human peptide antibiotic LL-37/hCAP-18. J Clin Invest 2003, 111, 1665-1672.
 
14.
Lange JH, Mastrangelo G, Fedeli U, Fadda E, Rylander R, Lee E: Endotoxin exposure and lung cancer mortality by type of farming: is there a hidden dose-response relationship? Ann Agric Environ Med 2003, 10, 229-232.
 
15.
Mason RJ: Biology of alveolar type II cells. Respirology 2006, 11, S12-S15.
 
16.
Mookherjee N, Brown KL, Bowdish DME, Doria S, Falsafi R, Hokamp K, Roche FM, Mu R, Doho GH, Pistolic J, Powers JP, Bryan J, Brinkman FSL, Hancock REW: Modulation of the TLR-mediated infl amatory response by the endogenous human host defence peptide LL-37. J Immunol 2006, 176, 2455-2464.
 
17.
Nell MJ, Tjabringa GS, Wafelman AR, Verrijk R, Hiemstra PS, Drijfhout JW, Grote JJ: Development of novel LL-37 derived antimicrobial peptides with LPS and LTA neutralizing and antimicrobial activities for therapeutic application. Peptides 2006, 27, 649-660.
 
18.
Nell MJ, Sandra Tjabringa G, Vonk MJ, Hiemstra PS, Grote JJ: Bacterial products increase expression of the human cathelicidin hCAP- 18/LL-37 in cultured human sinus epithelial cells. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 2004, 42, 225-231.
 
19.
Nell MJ, Grote JJ: Effects of bacterial toxins on air-exposed cultured human respiratory sinus epithelium. Ann Otol Rhino Laryngol 2003, 112, 461-468.
 
20.
Niyonsaba F, Someya A, Hirata M, Ogawa H, Nagaoka I: Evaluation of the effects of peptide antibiotics human beta-defensins-1/-2 and LL-37 on histamine release and prostaglandin D(2) production from mast cells. Eur J Immunol 2001, 31, 1066-1075.
 
21.
Osterholzer JJ, Ames T, Polak T, Sonstein J, Moore BB, Chensue SW, Toews GB, Curtis JL: CCR2 and CCR6, but not endothelial selectins, mediate the accumulation of immature dendritic cells within the lungs of mice in response to particulate antigen. J Immunol 2005, 175, 874-883.
 
22.
Prażmo Z, Dutkiewicz J, Skórska C, Sitkowska J, Cholewa G: Exposure to airborne Gram-negative bacteria, dust and endotoxin in paper factories. Ann Agric Environ Med 2003, 10, 93-100.
 
23.
Pütsep K, Carlsson G, Boman HG, Andersson M: Defi ciency of antibacterial peptides in patients with morbus Kostmann: an observation study. Lancet 2002, 360, 1144–1149.
 
24.
Rosenfeld Y, Papo N, Shai Y: Endotoxin (Lipopolysaccharide) neutralization by innate immunity host-defence peptides. Peptide properties and plausible modes of action. JBC 2006, 281, 1636-1643.
 
25.
Rosenfeld Y, Shai Y: Lipopolysaccharide (Endotoxin)-host defence antibacterial peptides interactions: role in bacterial resistance and prevention of sepsis. Biochim Biophys Acta 2006, 1758, 1513-1522.
 
26.
Shaykhiev R, Beisswenger C, Kandler K, Senske J, Puchner A, Damm T, Behr J, Bals R: Human endogenous antibiotic LL-37 stimulates airway epithelial cell proliferation and wound closure. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2005, 289, 842-848.
 
27.
Simpson A, John SL, Jury F, Niven R, Woodcock A, Ollier WE, Custovic A: Endotoxin exposure, CD14, and allergic disease: an interaction between genes and the environment. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2006, 174, 386-392.
 
28.
De Smet K, Contreras R: Human antimicrobial peptides: defensins, cathelicidins and histatins. Biotechnol Lett 2005, 27, 1337-1347.
 
29.
Śpiewak R, Dutkiewicz J: Immunomodulatory effects of the microvesicles from bacterial cell wall of Pantoea agglomerans. In: Valenta R, Akdis C, Bohle B (Eds): EAACI 2006. XXV Congress of the Europea Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Vienna, Austria, 10-14 June 2006, 94.
 
30.
Woo JS, Jeong JY, Hwang YJ, Chae SW, Hwang SJ, Lee HM: Expression of cathelicidin in human salivary glands. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2003, 129, 211-214.
 
31.
Xiao W, Hsu YP, Ishizaka A, Kirikae T, Moss RB: Sputum cathelicidin, urokinase plasminogen activation system components, and cytokines discriminate cystic fi brosis, COPD, and asthma infl ammation. Chest 2005, 28, 2316-2326.
 
32.
Yang D, Chen Q, Schmidt AP, Anderson GM, Wang JM, Wooters J, Oppenheim JJ, Chertov O: LL-37, the neutrophil granule- and epithelial cell-derived cathelicidin, utilizes formyl peptide receptor-like 1 (FPRL1) as a receptor to chemoattract human peripheral blood neutrophils, monocytes, and T-cells. J Exp Med 2000, 192, 1069-1074.
 
33.
Yoshio H, Tollin M, Gudmundsson G, Lagercrantz H, Jörnvall H, Marchini G: Antimicrobial polypeptides of human vernix caseosa and amniotic fl uid: implications for newborn innate defence. Pediatr Res 2003, 53, 211-216.
 
eISSN:1898-2263
ISSN:1232-1966
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top